As the Socialist Party asks how long the Prime Minister is prepared to keep a man in charge of public health whom he himself deems unfit, a liberal analyst is certain that Dr Kásler’s days as Cabinet Minister are numbered.

In a communique issued on Saturday, the Socialist Party urges the Prime Minister to sack his man in charge of education, health and welfare accusing him of mismanaging the coronavirus crisis. Dr Kásler, a renowned oncologist is no longer even being invited to meetings where decisions on tackling the virus emergency are discussed, the MSZP remarks and asks when Mr Orbán will bring himself to dismiss him.

On 444, Pál Dániel Rényi is convinced that Mr Orbán will oust Dr Kásler one way or another. One reason, he believes, is that the Minister botched the management of the coronavirus emergency. Rényi cites in particular the Minister’s hasty order to empty tens of thousands of hospital beds, whilst issuing statements which soon proved mistaken. In any case, he believes Mr Orbán prefers health institutions to be controlled by his Interior Minister. Rényi speculates that either Mr Kásler will be dismissed or his ministry will be dismembered, with the management of hospitals to be supervised by the Ministry of the Interior, while education would belong to the Ministry of Innovation (higher education is already controlled by it). Thus, Mr Kásler would find himself leading a Ministry of Health working on guidelines but without any competence over the public health service. Mr Orbán doesn’t like government reshuffles between two elections, Rényi remarks, but this time, due to widespread discontent with Dr Kásler among his own people, the Prime Minister might just get rid of his Minister of Human Resources.